Thursday, August 26, 2010

Just got back from a sold out screening of Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World film. This is easily the best comic book to film adaptation I have seen yet, in that they respected the source material as accurate and as possible. I personally think they shouldn't have used all seven evil exes and save some for a sequel, as the second half felt rushed. But it was still ace.

There's even a possibility of me watching it again (and this coming from a guy who now rarely visits the cinema these days - heck, I haven't even watch Toy Story 3 yet!), that'show much I loved it. Go read the books, play the game and watch this genre bending film.

Monday, August 23, 2010

Received an e-mail pretty much confirming my attendence to Nokia World 2010 (thanks Varun of FoneArena!). Met up with Katie, Lydia, Rhiannon, Paul and Klara from WOMWorldNokia for Okonomiyaki lunch at Abeno Too on Friday.

Spent much of Saturday and Sunday morning exploring (and Foursquare'ing up) Greenwich. Here we bumped into Mandy, a Twitter peep we knew from the Gumtree meet in May - how random!. Got me my 'Barista' and 'I'm on a Boat' in Greenwich Pier, and 'TLC Summer' badge at Hamleys in London (thanks Benjezzy!). Speaking of Foursquare, check out this recap of the first ever Foursquare Appreciation Society of Great Britain meet-up.

Finally met up with Julien at his swanky new bachelor's pad in Shoreditch, and his brother Mikhael and girlfriend, Clotilde, from France, for dinner in Cafe Raj in Brick Lane. Food was rubbish, but you can't beat the great company.

Friday, August 20, 2010

I was recently given the chance to sample Three's new MiFi wireless hotspot device. The MiFi is based on Huawei E585 and is a 3G HSDPA modem that also functions as a portable WiFi access point. This allows up to five WiFi-equipped gadgets to connect simultaneously to a single mobile broadband connection.

Despite being predominetly plastic, the MiFi is solidly built. The battery is accessed from the bottom through a cover. Below the battery contains the Sim card slot. There is a microSDHC card slot on the side, but I honestly have no idea what that's for! The solitary on/off button also doubles as a display toggle. It doesn't get more simple than that.

There is a small but useful OLED screen on the front which displays basic information such as the signal strength, connection time and how many devices are hooked up. The battery is good for about 4-5 hours, which I think is reasonable.

No set up was needed. Simply switch on the device and within less than a minute it was ready to be used. Key in the wireless security pass key to whatever device you want to pair it with and you are ready to surf on your notebook, play multiplayer PSP games on the go, download apps on your smartphone or whatever catches your fancy.

During my week long trial, I actually enjoyed the MiFi as it allowed me the freedom to test multiple WiFi-equipped phones like the C3. I also paired it with my Nokia X6 to stream music via Mobbler. If there ever was a killer application for mobile access points like the MiFi, it would be a music streamer like Mobbler or Spotify.

Download speed is decent, provided you are in an area with HSDPA 3.6Mbps support (up to 2.8Mbps according to Three). Unfortunately the MiFi doesn't default to 2.5G mode outside of Three's coverage so there were times when I was rudely cut off. Thankfully this is a rarity in London and only occurs in pockets of rural area in Hertfordshire and North London where I frequently travel through.

Would I get one? Likely, but first I need to get a new battery for my notebook (it only lasts 15-30 minutes now...). I only ever try to carry one smartphone with me at any one time, but the MiFi does have its conveniences such as making SIM card switching between devices a thing of the past. The new MiFi is available from £50 on Pay As You Go, and frankly a total of £75 for a Pay As You Go MiFi with 7GB allowance isn't too bad.

Saturday, August 14, 2010

It is a Saturday. It is raining. Summer has long since pissed off, last seen in July heading south.

I am writing my Nokia C3 review, but I am also bored. So I decided to do something even more boring - publish a statistical analysis of my twitter account based on TweetStats! Just for you loyal readers.

Sorry.I joined twitter on 26 May 2007.

I tweet most on Thursdays and Wednesdays, and least on Sundays and Mondays.

My peak tweet time is 9am, followed by 11pm. I have tweeted at every hour. I tweet least between 3-5am.

Looking at my aggregated hourly tweets, I tend to go to bed at 1am and be up by 6am.

Unsurprisingly I tweet most using Symbian's Gravity client, followed by Web and then Seesmic desktop clients.

I have posted 45 tweets using the full 140-character limit.

Of all evenings, I tweet least on Fridays. I am sure it is pretty obvious why.

I reply most to a guy in Australia, followed by a guy in Sheffield. Of my top 10 @, only two twitter users lives in London. Three are based outside Britain.

Most hashtags used: #cfg (152 mentions). Tweetstats can't look far back due to Twitter limitations, but I am sure #ovigoodthings would be second (ah good times).

I've posted over 400 pictures via twitpic, and that was before I changed my username in 2008.

I've met 80 tweeps in person, most of who are awesome, and some of who I now consider as proper mates. This makes me happy.

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Conspiracy For Good isn't just a game where we all have fun and then have a laugh afterwards. It is also about making a difference to people's lives.

Please help donate books by simply reading a book online at We Give Books. For every book you read, a book will be donated to a school library in Africa. The more books you read, the more books will be donated. Whether you donate just one or a thousand, every single book counts.

You can also donate toys to children via Kids Company's Amazon wishlist. Just add to basket and pay. It is that simple. Or you can simply send a cheque or donate cash.

Sunday, August 8, 2010

Yesterday we infiltrated Blackwell Briggs's career expo in Bloomsbury Square Gardens. We had to pose as possible recruits, armed with fake names and roles. I became Henry Gittins, a corporate lawyer for Brockman & Brockman. I talk about everyone but myself, and I like to introduce people to each other.

My fellow team mates for the day were Rafe of AAS, Abul, Julien, Jennifer and Natalie, our embedded reporter who was twitting from the @conspiracy4good account. Before we registered with Blackwell Briggs, we spent the time searching for drops around the Square gathering clues of what would be in store for us.

We joined the corporate track and had to undergo a series of assessment which includes word forming using cards, response control and engineering aptitude - where we had to build the tallest structure using straws and post it notes. We aced it obviously.

There was an interview I was supposed to attend but Blackwell Briggs goons suddenly came to us and ushered us to the 'dungeon'. One of the guards mentioned that he may have recognised me and started patting my back suspiciously. Downstairs we met a haggard looking Brian who was chained to the wall.

Jane Sakamoto (Jennifer) aced the interview and was 'hired' and had the chance to meet Sir Ian Briggs, but alas time was not on our side... But we did find Nigel, the mole inside Blackwell Briggs, and provided him with discs containing video evidence of David's murder.

All was revealed at the press conference where the video evidence and documents stolen from offices were used against Sir Ian. Then it was party time with the Mystery Jets, Ann Marie Calhoun, Nadirah X and David A. Stewart of Eurythmic.

Thanks to Nokia, Tim Kring the creator of CFG and Heroes, Christopher Sandberg, Petter Karlsson and the rest of TheCompanyP, the CFG and Nokia technical crew and artists (Ann Marie, Nadirah, Jim Martin aka Brian Crexley etc.) and the participants. Last but not least my fellow team members Julien, Abul, Rafe, Natalie and Jenni, all who made the event so much fun.

Also met many great... participants from past and present games and at the after event as well. Even managed to get one guy to join twitter. :D Got mistaken a couple of times again for some other guy, but I am not complaining... :)

Special hi to the three 1000heads ladies - it was so great to see them!

And thanks to Nokia for the free Nokia X6 (unboxing video)! We now have three X6 in this tiny flat. Woo for burgeoning N8 funds! :D

It was a wonderful experience. The fact that Conspiracy For Good is merely a pilot project meant that Nokia would be taking this game globally. ARG is about to hit mainstream - and about time too because it is fun. Mark Ollila of Nokia asked me to describe my experience in just one word. My response - unforgettable.

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

With only days to go before I don my best suit and attend Blackwell Brigg's career expo in Bloomsbury Square Gardens, here is video recap from last weekend as a fresh reminder why you should come and do your bit in bringing Sir Ian Briggs down.

Sunday, August 1, 2010

Yesterday we played in the third action of Conspiracy For Good, an alternate reality game (ARG), created by Tim Kring. I've read about ARG since the early 00s, but this is the first I've ever participated in one - and I am hooked!

Before you continue, if you do not know about the story so far, please watch the recap videos here.

The day started with a Skype session between the boss of evil multinational corporation Blackwell Briggs, Sir Ian Briggs and the conspiracy for good movement Spira. Ian revealed that Blackwell Briggs has kidnapped Ann Marie (Pegbox) and demanded we return the documents that exposed their evil dealings.

After much deliberation, where some voiced that Pegbox should be sacrificed for the common good, it was decided that the contracts should be exchanged for Ann Marie but a piece of contract paper was kept hidden as collateral. The intense exchange was done at a car park. Our friend Julien was tasked with handing the briefcase that contains the contract.

Back at the safe house, it was revealed that Blackwell Briggs CCTV camera system is susceptible to hacking and may contain clues to David's whereabouts. The conspirators were split into groups where we were sent to infiltrate their wireless system using Nokia X6 smartphones and hacked QR codes.

Our team were sent to six Blackwell Briggs CCTV locations. Most of the CCTV system did not contain any footages, but we did manage to acquire a footage of David being chased by Blackwell Briggs security thugs around St Mary's Axe.

It was here outside the Gherkin that a black landrover pulled up beside us, revealing a couple of grinning Blackwell Briggs security goons. A quick thinking Jennifer shouted 'run run run' and we legged it as fast as possible, without thinking. Another co-conspirator from another team as well as two civilians with kids were caught up in the action and ran with us!

Once we obtained all the video clues that we could get our hands on, we headed back to the hideout where it was revealed that a deleted encrypted archive may contain video footages that we suspected would lead to clues on David's whereabouts.

It wasn't. In fact it was a video footage that implicating Sir Ian Briggs for the murder of David.

We ended the day with a party in the HQ in memory of David.

Some of my favourite moments from the day (outside the game):

Hanging out and chatting with Tim Kring, creator of Heroes and Conspiracy For Good. Okay, it was only for a few minutes, but still.

Running away from Blackwell Briggs security goons in the City of London, causing panic among civilians (none-participants). Even the cameraman ran with us, rather than filming it!

Being mistaken a couple of times for Hiro from Heroes at the after party. Even got my picture taken with a gal who insisted I was Hiro!